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The Cure to Cancer?
RubberEagle
What's a rubber eagle used for, anyway?
in Zocalo v2.0
[url]http://science.slashdot.org/science/03/11/04/1816227.shtml?tid=134&tid=191[/url]
While i think that's pretty cool, i can't help but to wonder what happens if that virus mutates and also attacks non-cancer cells...
While i think that's pretty cool, i can't help but to wonder what happens if that virus mutates and also attacks non-cancer cells...
Comments
I've lost more then one friend/relative to cancer....
[B]if this works....it would be GREAT!
I've lost more then one friend/relative to cancer.... [/B][/QUOTE]
not just you, my whole family has a pretty big record of cancer-patients
[B]But it's a step in the right direction. Also what if the Virus is used too much and we become imune to it. [/B][/QUOTE]
Most of us have already had the virus in our body, and our immune systems know how to fight it. Hence, the reovirus isn't supposed to be injected just anywhere in your body to fight a tumor, because it's very unlikely the virus would make the trip through your body. It's intended to be injected directly into the tumor, where the virus can enter cancerous cells, replicate, enter more cancerous cells, etc. until there aren't any more cells it can replicate in.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Biggles[/i]
[B]Yeah, it is pretty interesting, but the possibility for mutation can't be ignored.[/b][/quote]
Maybe not, but it's a virus that has been in the bodies of between 70 to 100 percent of the population already. Of course, I'm no virologist or geneticist, but if it was going to mutate into something more dangerous, wouldn't that have happened already? The virus can't have come into creation just recently, and just because it's injected into a specific point in the body shouldn't mean it's going to mutate into a killer virus.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Messiah [/i]
[B]Or if the cancercells do rather.[/B][/quote]
Cancer cells are already mutated, they're normal human cells with damaged DNA. The damaged DNA is what causes the mutation and the uncontrollable growth. The reason why the reovirus is able to kill certain cancer cells is because those cells, through the mutation, have an activated Ras pathway (don't ask me what it means, because I really don't know ;)), which allows the virus to enter the cells without an immunological response. When it tries to enter a normal cell, it gets beaten down and taken to the cleaner's.
[B]Maybe not, but it's a virus that has been in the bodies of between 70 to 100 percent of the population already. Of course, I'm no virologist or geneticist, but if it was going to mutate into something more dangerous, wouldn't that have happened already? The virus can't have come into creation just recently, and just because it's injected into a specific point in the body shouldn't mean it's going to mutate into a killer virus.[/B][/QUOTE]
In that case, the chances of mutation are pretty slim since, as you say, it would probably have happened already.
[B]But it's a step in the right direction. Also what if the Virus is used too much and we become imune to it. [/B][/QUOTE]
I was never too good with my biology, but I don't think you can become immune to a virus in any event.
Or is it that you can't [i]cure[/i] a virus, and have to become immune? Damn.
[B]I was never too good with my biology, but I don't think you can become immune to a virus in any event.
Or is it that you can't [i]cure[/i] a virus, and have to become immune? Damn. [/B][/QUOTE]
The latter one is correct, but depends on what you mean by curing it. When a virus enters your body, it provokes an immunological response from your body, i.e. your body tries to get rid of it. In layman's terms, if it's a virus it hasn't encountered before, it takes a while for it to figure out how to fight it. Fever, for instance, is a defense mechanism. Your body raises the temperature in order to help fight the virus. Once your body has figured out how to fight the virus, it generates antibodies to kill the virus. Having these antibodies in your bloodstream is what immunity is, since a virus can't survive very long in your blood stream if your body has defense mechanisms already in place. A vaccine is an inactivated virus, a virus that can't cause any trouble in your system. Its only function is to cause the immunological response necessary for your body to generate antibodies against any "real" versions of the virus that might enter your system. The duration of immunities against various culprits vary depending on how long these antibodies remain in your bloodstream. Some last a life time, others require boosters.